ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wen Xin Lim is a Research Associate at IPP Review. She worked as a Research Assistant at the East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore from 2014-2015. She obtained her B. Soc. Science (Hons) in Economics & Chinese Studies from the National University of Singapore in 2013.

Social Networks:

The 2017 Alibaba’s Singles Day in China has witnessed a nation-wide online shopping blitz fetching sales of RMB 254 billion. The e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba “accounted for 66.2% of the pie, posting yet another year of record sales of RMB 168.3 billion.”

The commencement address of a Chinese citizen, Yang Shuping, at the University of Maryland sparked an uproar in China. Not only did Chinese netizens heavily criticize her for what they deemed as “untruthful” comments, they also disparaged her for insulting China.

Recently, the Big Data Report of Trade Cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative revealed that the 64 countries participating in BRI contributed to 16 percent of the world’s GDP and 43.4 percent of the world’s population.

The US occupation of the Philippines overwhelmed the country with much Americanness in the cultural, social, and political aspects. Yet the search for a Philippine national identity under colonialism drew its people into negative postcolonial mental scripts.

During his presidential campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump repeatedly stressed that he would rebuild US’ deteriorating infrastructure by pumping USD 550 billion into an aggressive plan to ensure better and more effective transportation and network systems.

While Chinese tourists are welcomed due to their increased spending power, their ill manners and rude behaviors unfortunately put the host countries in a difficult position and also tarnish China’s reputation as a whole.

Footage of Queen Elizabeth II making an unguarded comment on China’s diplomats leaked out early this month. Be it cultural difference or misunderstanding, a big question that should be addressed by China is, who is its true friend after all?